Happy Birthday Lil!

Happy Birthday dear Alicia! Happy Birthday to my best friend (next to Eir and Care). I can't believe you are 31! Look out depends! hahahahaha. In all seriousness, you are the greatest sister in the world (next to Eir and Care). What would this day be without a walk down memory lane....where should we begin? How about the day I saved your life, when you fell into the sewer! That was so scary. I still don't think mom believes us. Remember all the fun on North Ohio when we would go to Jessica's grandma's house and sit on the chicken coop. You would follow me everywhere! Remember playing bar on the Fitzek's deck? You and Jeffery G. sucking thumbs in his basement! Mom always dressing us the same way...even our hair in long braids and matching ribbons? Everyone always said we looked so pretty with our long hair...why did we hate it? Then we got the Dorothy Hamil! That was awful......long hair didn't seem so bad after that! You always looked so pretty with your sweet dimples and Shirley Temple curls a girlie girl! We were definitely opposites. My tom boy ways loving sports and you the queen of cheer leading, hair fixing and nails. I loved cuddling you and then scarring you by saying,"Jabba the Hut!" You would cry and I would always say I'm sorry and we go right back to cuddling! I must say I would just about give my left leg to have you follow me everywhere today! Our friendship has blossomed so much over the passed 11 years. I loved when Doug and I first got married that you and Isaiah would come over every weekend! You even drove in many snow storms. I will never forget the day you told me you were moving to Virginia. I felt like someone punched me in the gut. I knew that was your desire and that it was God's plan for your life, but I wanted you here with me. The growth I saw in you and Isaiah that first year was so encouraging. Uncle Buzz and Aunt Cathy were so gracious to let you live with them, how awesome to be under their care! I know they taught you so much. I remember how our family and friends would take care of Isaiah while you were at work, and then Marie taking over. I knew then that God had you right where he wanted you. I am so thankful for Sovereign Grace and the love they showed and continue to show you. I am thankful for J. taking care of you and Zai...you are blessed! It is so neat to see God's hand on your life and his faithfulness to you. Thank you for praying with me all the time and always helping me to see my sin even when I don't want to! Thank you for wisdom, love and just having a listening ear. Thank you for reminding me I need to have patience and for all your child rearing tips! I am so thankful for this day, December 14th, because God blessed me with you for a sister! I love you so much and wish we could be together today! I will be having a cup of coffee at about 6:00 am and if you could have one with me that would be ideal!!!!!!!!!! If you left now you could be here by 2:00. OK, OK, time for my famous last words. We are going to have so many cups of coffee in heaven...cause "we'll be neighbors there!" I look forward to the day when we won't live thousands of miles away. I love you Lil, my dear friend and sister and I hope your birthday is Smashing!

Happy Birthday Pa Jon!

Happy Birthday Pa Jon! We hope your day is amazing! You are such a blessing to us and we adore you. I am so thankful for your Fatherly guidance and willingness to always listen. When I think of you I think of your Faithfulness in all you do. Thank you for making my mom so happy and just being you. I love coming to your house and hanging out. We always have great talks and plenty of good laughs! God blessed us girls with two fathers and I am so greatful for you. Thank you again for always opening up your home and making our times together so special. Have a great birthday and know your daughters, son-in-laws, and grandchildren think you ROCK!! We love you Pa Jon and Happy Birthday! This weekend we went to mom and Jon's house for the Sleighbell Parade. It was so much fun. Mom's house is of course decotared so pretty! I think every room is decorated. You can see some of it in the pictures below...they don't do it justice at all. Doug and Jason played outside with the kids and pulled them on the tube....they also took turns pulling each other. Doug flipped Jason right off and it was so funny. We celebrated Christmas with the kids and that was fun. I took some pictures of all the families and that was an experience! We celebrated Jon's birthday and he was so surprised. Mom made a peanut butter ice cream pie and it was so good that Doug, Eir and I plowed it down for breakfast Saturday morning! That's one thing about going to the farm......there is so much food you never experience a HUNGER PAIN! Mom and I went to the craft show on Saturday and we got ourselves a little treat. The parade was great and we stood by Rick and Sue...it was good to see them. Sue thought I was Alicia and said,"Where's Isaiah?" I said, "He's in Virginia." She looked at me a little funny, and then later said ,"Oh my goodness you are Jessica! You girls look so much alike!" I thought to myself Yeah I look like Lish plus about 40! Hahahahah. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. Have a great day! Happy Birthday Pa Jon!

The best baby seat ever!

The best baby seat ever invented is the Prince lionheart be` be` pod! I just gor it and love it Harrison does too. We have a ton of snow here today and I will be blogging pictures later. I miss everyone and hope to hear from you soon.

Getting ready for Christmas

Where does the time go? I can't believe today is November 29th! It seems like yesterday was Halloween. I have not been making very good use of my time lately. I have been reading "Don't make me count to three" by Ginger Plowman in the little free time I have. That book is AMAZING! I 'm sure everyone reading this already has it, but if you don't, I encourage you to get it. When I read it before I didn't really study it like I am now and let me tell you that bringing yourself to truth and your child really works! Just seeing my own sin in wanting Blase to behave a certain is eye opening. I think I finally get what is means to get to the heart of your child. Although I still have plenty of moments, I am trying to train him and myself in righteousness.

I started decorating for Christmas and I had to blog about my dollar store finds. I bought the balls and ribbon at the dollar store and I just thought they were adorable! My mom came over and helped me turn my pine garlane into Martha Stewart garland. My tree is full of ornaments from Doug's mom. They were on his trees growing up. I always think they look so pretty. I am trying to get my Christmas cards done and I am very excited about them. I just wish my eyes would stay open past 8:00! I am going to blog later with some new pictures of the boys and Blase wants to blog about his Christmas tree. Love to you all, and are a couple of my favorite people coming to Michigan, or is that just a rumor? You know who you are....CALL ME!

Developing a sound mind.

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. I want to do it a little more,maybe as Harrison gets bigger. Blase has been sick for about 8 days. He has allergies and a sinus infection. He ran a fever last Sunday and has been sick ever since. He got an antibiotic on Friday, developed another fever Saturday and ran one all Sunday! Needless to say I have been doing lots and lots of laundry...you know boys, can' t find a tissue use you shirt, blanket your baby brother's sleeve. Plus on Saturday Harrison started getting yeast in the cracks of his legs and up his belly. He gets it in his leg cracks because it is always moist in there and it just spread up his belly. It looks better today. I have only been to the doctor, pharmacy and grocery store in 8 says I am ready to get out of the house. This weekend I have once again started studying my overcoming fear. worry and anxiety book by Elyse Fitzpatrick. Every time I read this book I do the questions at the end of each chapter in my journal. I am always grateful for how this book points me to truth. This time when I was reading, something I had not paid much attention to before really got to me.
Elyse was telling about a blip from the book the hiding place when a baby had died and Corrie was realizing it was possible for anyone to die, even her own beloved father."you can't die!You can't" she sobbed. This is how she described her father's response to her fear: Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. "Corrie," he began gently,
"when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?"
I sniffed a few times, considering this. "Why, just before we get on the train."
"Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things too. Don't run ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need- just in time."
Elyse goes on to say that Corrie's father was teaching her whatever difficulty comes your way then and only then will you have the strength to live through it. She also says over the years she has had to remind herself she doesn't need the"ticket"of God's strength and grace for a train that hasn't or may never arrive. The only ticket she needs is for the train she is to board right now and God has promised to provide that ticket for me when she needs it. "I will never leave you nor forsake you," He has said to us(Hebrew 13:5nkjv). That means that He'll be there , holding our hand, no matter what train he has called into the station. She writes that fear that exists in our imagination is a formidable foe. But it can be put to death by the Spirit and faith. This book also includes this portion from Charles Spurgeon's sermon on needless fears and this is what it says:
...........many of God's people are constantly under apprehensions of calamities which will never occur to them, and they suffer far more in merely dreading them than they would have to endure if they actually came upon them. In their imaginations, there are rivers in their way, and they are anxious to know how they shall wade through them, or swim across them. There are no such rivers in existence, but they are agitated and distressed about them....these timid people are continually crossing bridges that only exist in their...fancies. They stab themselves with daggers, they starve themselves in imaginary famines, and even bury themselves in imaginary graves......
She then writes about how we need to discipline our thoughts and we need to begin to see how sinful imagination feed our fears.
All that middle stuff was taken directly from the book. Which is awesome a must read!
I think many of us can relate to this in some way.Having a sound mind and thought life is hard. I spend so much time thinking of what might happen I forget to enjoy what is happening now. In realizing how selfish I am, my prayer is to trust God with everything, my husband's life. my boys life, and my own. Why do I feel I can only trust him with certain things? God is getting to something much deeper in me and I know this. I just feel so encouraged to have the simple truth that my life is in God's hands, not my own like I tend to think. The hairs on my head are numbered and I am fearfully and wonderfully made! Psalm 139:17-18. How precious to me are you thoughts , O God!How vast is the sum of them?Were I to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand. This is amazing and awesome truth! So today in my desire to develop a sound mind and discipline my thoughts, I have decided to enjoy this one life, my family,church, books etc....as I prepare for my heavenly home. I am so thankful to be a wife and mother and I am so thankful to share what is going on in my life with all of you!

Halloween Walk 2007

Today was the annual Halloween walk. We took the boys Blase's dear friend Aiden. My Dad met us and walked us. It was so much fun because we don't get to see my Dad that often, and now that he is moving in a few short months, we are taking every opportunity to spend time with him. He is such a wonderful Dad and so much fun to be with. I am so thankful to be his daughter and friend.

Well, Blase was a bumblebee and Harrison was a duck. Aiden was the black spider man. Our costumes were 18.00 and were very warm. Blase will trick or treat as an Army guy for Halloween....I hope. I guess I don't really care what he is. I ran into a friend from high school that I had not seen in 11 years! She lives here in we are going to get together. Blase was bored 1o minutes into the trick or treating and sat down in the middle of the sidewalk with his bag of candy! He is so funny and I see myself in him so much that it is scary. He would rather eat the 7 pieces of candy he has instead of waking around and getting more. When we were done Dad left, we had pizza and Blase and Aiden colored for probably an hour and a half. When Michelle picked him up we were sad to see him go. God has blessed us with them for friends. Love to you all and have a great weekend!

Family Fun!

Finally a nice enough day to get outside! There won't be many more of these. Today was a beautiful day so we went for a nature walk and snapped some family photos. Our first one with the four of us. I hope they aren't too blurry! We have been inside a lot this week due to rain and I have been fighting sinus stuff. Today I actually don't have a sore throat for the first time in a week. We had so much fun on this outing. There are so many pretty spots here. This place is like 3 miles from our house, there are rapids and tons of trails. My friend Michelle and her kids went with us. The boys took their shirts off at the end because it was like 75 degrees. Yesterday was sweetest day and at 8:30 last night Doug gave me a Ipod Nano or is it a Nano Ipod? Either way I was very surprised! I think I cried for twenty minutes. With it he bought me a nike running chip that goes in my shoe and part of it goes in the ipod. It is a program for walking and running. I have been really trying to shed the baby weight and it is so hard, but now I can run listening to music, sermons etc... I think. I still have to open it and find out what it does exactly. See in the morning, we said happy sweetest day to one another and no gifts were exchanged. He called me about ten minutes after he left for work and said,"I love you so much ...Happy sweetest day!" I thought that was the greatest thing in the world because no matter how many times we hear I love you, a gesture so small is very special. I adore Doug and everyday I am provoked by his willingness to always serve me, even when he might not want to. He is my number one. It was a great end to a busy week. Tomorrow Harrison is five months old, where does the time go? Blase is loving school and got his first progress report. He is doing very well for being the youngest in the class. I am so thankful God provided a way for us to send him to school. He is going to the pumpkin patch on Thursday and is very excited about it. Hope everyone had a good weeekend! Love you all.